Biodiesel

[Dunebound69]

www.utahbio.com Been thinking about doing this. Looking for some of the $.02 thoughts. This outfit is actually local to me. Good source of used vegie oil is my first problem.

[chrishallett83]

You can't get biodiesel at the gas station?

[SPEC]

Ya but it costs about $1.25 to brew yourself

[Voodoochikin04]

biodiesel plant here closed after a year of operation..  the ethanol plant is growing like crazy

[LiveWire]

I used to drive 6 miles round trip out of my way to get fuel from a station that sold biodiesel. They stopped selling it now saying hardly anyone bought it. I got about 5%, 2mpg, better mileage with my TDI. I think the Excursion was probably about the same, but 5% is harder to see. No place around here will give you the used oil anymore. You have to buy it from them.

[Voodoochikin04]

yea thats why our plant closed, no stations were buying it.. because they couldnt sell it.  they were trying to sell it for the same price as regular... stupid.

[fabr]

And it's not as "green" as many think.

[LiveWire]

It is cleaner than regular diesel. It is made from a resource that is consuming carbon from the air rather than carbon which was stored in the earth. Diesel vehicles now have the same emission requirements as gas vehicles in terms of percentage. Since diesel vehicles get better mileage, the mass of emissions output would be lower than a comparable gas vehicle. Mileage does not go down with biodiesel like it does with ethanol in gas vehicles.

[fabr]

I'm talking about the lye and such used in producing it. It's not all that enviro friendly. I'm NOT against it .Just pointing out something that is easily "overlooked".

[LiveWire]

There are two types of lye that can be used. I can't recall the scientific names of each off hand. One of the two is slightly more expensive, but the glycerin by product is pot ash. A company near Lansing that makes Bio Diesel sells the pot ash to local farmers. They sell it cheaper than it can be purchased at a grainery making worth the farmer's effort to go there. They bring in more than enough from that to offset the higher cost of using the one type of lye. I have not made bio diesel my self yet, but if I did, planned to use that type lye. It probably would not be worth my while to sell a little pot ash, but at least I could fertilize my own yard with it.

[chrishallett83]

biodiesel plant here closed after a year of operation..  the ethanol plant is growing like crazy

What? That's crazy.

Biodiesel is cleaner than regular diesel, it's not a magic solution, but it is better. Low % ethanol blend gasoline (E10, E15 etc.) is worse than regular petrol in a standard car. You use more fuel and you lose power!

[Nutz4sand]

What? That's crazy.

Biodiesel is cleaner than regular diesel, it's not a magic solution, but it is better. Low % ethanol blend gasoline (E10, E15 etc.) is worse than regular petrol in a standard car. You use more fuel and you lose power!

Yup. Welcome to our G-ments way of thinking Chris. They were misinformed that Ethanol is a great thing and they are running with it. Since they thought it was so great at one point admitting now its not would mean admitting they were wrong. 

You have a better chance of seeing the Devil buy a snowblower.

[fabr]

I'd prefer to see biodiesel from virgin stock.

[Carlriddle]

We've got a Bio plant in town that makes 3 million gallons a year from chicken fat from local processing plants.  And we thought all the bad stuff went to KFC and our arteries.  Theres supose to be another one in town that makes it from soybeans.  I think making diesel any of the bio ways would be great.  How much land would be required to make 64,323,336,000 US Gallons, cause thats what the US used in 2007. Newest ### I could quickly find.

[LiveWire]

The stuff I used to buy at a local station was made from soy. The plant I was saying made it and sold the glycerin to farmers was also using soy. It was a trucking company that made it and used it in their own trucks. Buying the soy oil to make it made it comparable in price to buying regular diesel. However, the fleet was getting 7% better fuel economy. The government does not really back bio diesel. If you look at the diesel vehicles made starting in 2007, most don't like bio diesel. When DPFs were added, they started injecting fuel during the exhaust stroke that went right out the valves to burn soot in the filter. Diesels normally burn the fuel right as it is injected, but in this case, it can leak past the rings. it's not good to get biodiesel in the engine oil. The 2011 Ford Super Duty will run on bio. I think the GM might as well.

When this thread started, I Googled using algae to see where the state of that is. I did not find any home brewers doing anything with it. There is a difference between a company being able to sell a barrel comparable to crude in price and a home grower being able to make bio diesel from it and be able to beat the price at the pump. In a few years, we'll probably see people having done it and documenting it. one thing I wondered about was being able to harvest it. One method seems reasonable. use an air pump to lines down to the bottom of a pond and pump in a lot of air in a short period of time. It will float the algae to the top to be skimmed.